( m ) 
Art. 111 .— -Account of Captain Hodgson's Journey to the Head 
of the Ga?iges *. 
This interesting journey was performed in the year 1817, 
by Captain Hodgson and Lieutenant Herbert, who pursued the 
course of the Ganges a considerable way beyond Gangoutri, 
and “ to the place where its head is concealed by masses of snow 
which never melt.” 
As we have already made our readers acquainted (see Vol. III. 
p. 228.) with the interesting observations of Mr Baillie Fraser on 
the source of the Ganges, we shall proceed to give an abridged 
abstract of the equally interesting journal of Captain Hodgson. 
Having formed little magazines of grain at the places where 
they intended to halt, and re-established the Sangas or spar- 
bridges over the river, which had been destroyed by avalanches 
of snow, the travellers marched from Reital on the 21st May 
1817. 
“ Reital,” says Captain Hodgson, u contains about thirty-five 
houses, and is esteemed a considerable village : as usual in the 
upper mountains, where timber is plentiful, the houses are large, 
and two or three storeys high. When a house has three storeys, 
the lowest serves to shelter the cattle by night, the second is a 
sort of granary, and in the upper the family dwells. Round it 
there is generally a strong wooden gallery or balcony, which is 
supported by beams that project from the walls. The roofs of 
the houses are made of boards or slates : they are shelving, and 
project much beyond the top of the walls, and cover the balco- 
ny, which is closed, in bad weather, by strong wooden shutters 
or pannels. These houses are very substantial, and have a 
handsome appearance at a distance ; but they are exceedingly 
filthy within, and full of vermin. The walls are composed of 
long cedar beams and stone in alternate courses ; the ends of 
the beams meet all the corners, where they are bolted together 
by wooden pins. Houses of this construction are said to last 
for several ages, for the Deodar or Kailou pine, which I sup- 
* Abridged from the Asiatic Researches, vol. xiv. p. 60. Calcutta 1 822. 
